Graham Mackintosh starts next Baja journey

Wanderlust is tugging once again at Graham Mackintosh, and that can mean only one thing for the legendary Baja adventurer – a return to the mysterious and magical Mexican peninsula that captured his heart and soul 30 years ago.

Next week, San Diego’s Mackintosh, the man who walked Baja’s entire 3,000-mile coastline on a whim as a 31-year-old, returns to Baja for another two-year or so journey. The award-winning adventure writer plans to explore the coast, desert and islands and revisit people and scenes that inspired him to write four very successful adventure books – “Into a Desert Place,” “Journey With a Baja Burro,” “Marooned . . . With Very Little Beer” and “Nearer My Dog To Thee.”

“I feel like a fish out of water when I’m not in Baja,” Mackintosh said at a recent breakfast meeting. “I just love that place. It is so beautiful. And it’s so full of adventure and wonderful people. If I’m not there, I’m dreaming of being there. I feel the 30th anniversary of my first walk is a great opportunity to do it all again.”

Mackintosh’s four books and thousands of seminars have earned him the role as Baja’s most acclaimed adventuring icon. His words and humor that relived his memories, his pictures that showed Baja’s “kindly and generous strangers” and his descriptions of unexplored Baja like a “simple meal shared on a remote beach” drove many to explore the undeveloped, underexplored regions of Baja.

His life-long journey of Baja has been as much about his own self-discovery as it has been about him sharing and educating the world about the real, truthful Baja.

“At the end of the day, all of my books are about journeys of exploration, spiritual exploration,” Mackintosh said. “All of my books are chronicles of a spiritual journey.”

It all led one man, former El Cajon policeman Mike Younghusband, to become a Mackintosh disciple and travel the length of Baja, from Tecate to Cabo San Lucas, with a burro named Don Kay. Younghusband now lives in Loreto and continues to explore the enchanted land, sporting a sombrero and adventuring with Don Kay.

But now it’s Mackintosh’s turn . . . again.

He’ll start at Guardian Angel Island, a protected preserve off Bahia de Los Angeles. At 40 miles long and 10 miles across in some places, it’s the second-largest island in the Sea of Cortez. It requires a permit to visit. Mackintosh will hire a panguero to take him and his kayak and supplies out. He said pangueros these days are much more sophisticated and even get e-mail. He knows Baja is a much different place in terms of safety than it was 30 years ago, but he’s prepared and fully aware of the dangers of drug-runners and kidnappers. He’ll have a SPOT satellite messenger device.

“The dangers will be in the back of my mind on that island,” Mackintosh said. “As you get older, you get a little more cautious. I’m aware of it, but the people I’ve met have been delightful so hospitable, generous and kind that it really makes travel to Baja very pleasant for me.”

Mackintosh’s last visit to Guardian Angel Island was full of wild experiences. His kayak trips in the rapid currents of tidal waters put him into large schools of yellowtail, and he often saw breaching whales. He spent days kayaking, beachcombing, bird-watching, exploring and hiking the rugged, uninhabited island. He met up with poachers and had to deal with the usual Sea of Cortez challenges of wind, rattlesnakes, scorpions and even some scary-looking feral cats, island dwellers that have developed fangs like mini-Saber-tooth cats.

It all starts next week.

“I’ll spend the next two years walking and paddling to some of the wilder, more special places I’ve visited before or wished I had,” Mackintosh said. “I’ve got a goal to go back to the places that I really enjoyed over the last 30 years, mostly remote stretches where I’ll be pretty much on my own. I may not be capable of doing this much longer. So, it’s now or never.”